SHANNISE DZOBO
MASVINGO – Mashoko Church of Christ group of schools in Masvingo has urged the government to decongest urban areas by establishing more learning centres as that will help in improving pass rates.
Government has been called upon to build more schools with affordable fees for the urban poor who are congesting Christian Colleges in Chiredzi and Masvingo thereby affecting the pass rate at the learning institutions.
Most schools in urban areas are private hence charge high fees shutting out the poor who end congesting the only two private schools in Masvingo and Chiredzi which offer affordable fees hence the Government and councils should fill in the gap by building more schools.
The high enrolment rate at Chiredzi and Masvingo Christian Colleges have significantly led to poor results at the institutions in the 2022 ZIMSEC examinations for both A an O Level said Samuel Mahwehwe the Education secretary for Mashoko Christian Schools.
“Masvingo Christian College and Chiredzi Christian College have high enrolments and the government and the local authorities in the respective towns are called upon to build more schools with affordable fees so as to decongest these two schools so that they produce quality results although their pass rates generally match the national pass rates,” said Mahwehwe.
The nine secondary schools that fall under the Church of Christ namely: Dewure in Gutu 80%, Mashoko in Bikita 66.1%, Masvingo Christian 32%, Chizondo 28.6%, Chiredzi Christian 27.6%, Matara 24.6%, Dine 16.6%, Dandawa 16% and Chiromo at 11.4% in 2022 ZIMSEC results.
Mahwehwe also reiterated that two of its boarding schools attained good results as compared to the urban day schools since they are obliged to enroll all grade 7 students from their surrounding areas leading to them having 50% of their students being day scholars which somehow has a negative effect on their pass rates.
The issue of resources play a big role as well as they are becoming scarce in all schools especially text books and they also need money to also practise E-learning which is quite expensive.
“Our two boarding schools attained good results as compared to the urban day schools since they are obliged to enroll all grade 7 students from their surroundings leading to them having 50% of their students being day scholars which may somehow affect their pass rates and also besides that issue, resources are becoming scarce in all schools especially text books and we also need money to come in with smart schools that promote E-learning,” said Mahwehwe.
He went on to say that Dandawa in particular is a low cost boarding school in Mashonaland West in Hurungwe District, 75% of its learners are under Basic Education Assistance Module (BEAM) of which the fees is not always paid to the school in time and resources are becoming the biggest challenge in the rural day schools because of very low fees as the parents are poor.
